The roaring orange flames consumed the isolated palace wing, sending columns of thick, black smoke billowing into the midnight sky. Amidst the ringing alarms and shouting guards, Sebastian slipped through the lower courtyard, his heavy frame bent low under the weight of the unconscious fourteen-year-old girl in his arms. The blinding golden glow that had radiated from Miranda's skin had slowly receded, her celestial aura pulling back deep into her core until her features returned completely to normal.
Sebastian threw open the back of a royal supply carriage, laying her gently onto a bed of rough burlap sacks. He pulled a dirty canvas tarp over her body, hiding her from view. As a princess who had been stripped of her title, hidden from palace functions, and labeled a "reject," Miranda was not famous or loved. No one in the outer provinces or neighboring kingdoms had any true idea of what she looked like. Only the immediate royal court had ever seen her face—a tragic reality that Sebastian knew would now play entirely to her advantage.
He closed the wooden doors and turned to the trusted carriage rider, a loyal connection he had known for decades. "Drive until the horses give out," Sebastian whispered urgently, his hand gripping the man's shoulder. "Take her to the borderlands. Keep her safe."
The rider nodded grimly, snapping the reins. The carriage rattled out of the palace gates, vanishing into the pitch-black night while Suncity burned behind them.
Hours bled into the dark as the carriage traveled deep into the jagged, lawless neutral zone between the two kingdoms. But the journey was destined to end in blood.
High up on a narrow mountain pass bordering a treacherous cliffs' edge, a sudden, unnatural shadow materialized directly in the path of the speeding horses. It was Rode. Amon's hyper-loyal right hand man stepped out of the darkness, a cruel, emotionless gaze locking onto the driver. Before the rider could even scream, a blade of dark, condensed energy sliced through the air.
The driver was killed instantly, his lifeless body slumping over the seat.
Without a guiding hand, the panicked horses veered sharply to the left. The wooden wheels caught the jagged rocks, causing the entire carriage to violently stumble, flip over, and break apart into a chaotic mess of splinters and torn canvas. The sheer force of the crash threw Miranda's unconscious body clear of the wreckage, sending her rolling across the dirt until she landed in a hidden crevice right at the very edge of the steep cliff.
Rode stepped through the settling dust, his boots clicking against the stones as he raised his hand to summon a shadow flare to search the wreckage for the divine aura he had sensed. But before he could take another step, the distant, rhythmic thudding of approaching horse hooves echoed through the canyon walls. A group of wealthy merchant carriages was traveling the pass.
Gritting his teeth in frustration, Rode dissolved back into the shadows, fleeing the scene before the travelers could spot him.
When the merchant caravan arrived moments later, they stopped in shock at the sight of the violent wreckage. Inspecting the crash site, they found only the dead driver, his throat cleanly slit. Assuming it was a brutal highway robbery by border bandits, they hurriedly loaded the driver's body into their cart to report the murder once they reached their destination of Suncity. They never noticed the small girl lying motionless in the dark crevice below the cliff.
When Miranda finally opened her eyes, the sun had long vanished, replaced by the eerie, twilight glow of the lawless neutral borderlands. She was shivering violently, the biting, cold winds of the high altitude slicing through her torn, dirty clothing. Every muscle in her body ached from the violent carriage crash, her mind a blurred fog of poison, fire, and suffocating darkness.
Pushing herself up on trembling elbows, she realized she was no longer in Suncity. The earth beneath her was dark and jagged, and the sky above seemed to hang in a perpetual state of half-light.
"Well, look what the mountain decided to spit out," a sharp, smooth voice echoed from the rocks above her.
Miranda snapped her head up, her pulse instantly spiking. Standing atop a boulder just a few feet away was a young woman wearing a dark leather hood and a utility belt lined with rare trinkets and glowing stones. Her arms were crossed, and a knowing, highly intelligent smirk played across her lips.
It was Lyra, the shadow market informant. Her eyes locked onto Miranda's shivering form, scanning her with a practiced, predatory curiosity.
"A little sun-girl wandering the midnight pass all alone," Lyra chuckled, jumping down from the boulder with effortless grace. She stepped closer, tilting her head as she took in Miranda's unique appearance. "You don't look like a bandit, and you certainly don't look like a peasant. So, little bird... are you a prize I can sell, or a friend I can exploit?"
Miranda clenched her teeth, her knuckles digging into the cold dirt as she forced herself to stand upright, her grey eyes narrowing with fierce survival instinct. In this lawless wasteland, she had no idea if the girl standing before her was a saving grace or her next worst nightmare.